1. Field
The following description relates to a dryer configured to dry a substance such as clothing, and more particularly, to a dryer configured to detect and display the degree of an exhaust blockage of the dryer, and a blockage detection method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A dryer is an apparatus configured to dry a substance by supplying high-temperature moving air heated by a hot blast heater into an inside of a drying container (a drum) while the drum having the clothing accommodated to be dried (hereinafter called a substance) is being rotated. The dryer as such may be classified into an exhaust-type dryer configured to exhaust the high-temperature, high-moisture air that is passed through the drum to the outside of the dryer, and a condensation-type dryer configured to remove moisture from the high-temperature, high-moisture air that is passed through the drum and to circulate the air inside the drum.
The exhaust-type dryer described above is configured to exhaust the heated air, which is passed through the drum, through an exhaust duct to the outside of the dryer. At this time, the lint generated from the substance is included with the air, and is discharged. Thus, by installing a filter member configured to filter the lint, so that the lint generated from the substance is not accumulated in the exhaust duct, the blockage of the exhaust duct by the lint is prevented.
However, the lint accumulates at the exhaust duct as the dryer is being used for a period of time, and as a result of the above, the flow of the air is not freely discharged to the outside of the dryer, and thus the drying performance is reduced, and the power consumption or the noise of a draft fan is increased.
In addition, in a case of installing the dryer, an installer should know whether the installation environment is suitable for the operation of the dryer, such as when an outside exhaust duct, which is configured to guide the air that is passed through the drum to discharge the air to the outside of the dryer, is blocked. Accordingly, although the body of the dryer is in a normal status, because of the blockage of the outside exhaust duct, the flow of the air may not occur. However, because a conventional dryer is configured to detect the degree of blockage only during the drying process while containing the substance, when the substance is not present, the blockage detection function may not operate at all or may be provided with a large margin of error. As a result, the suitability with respect to the installation environment may not be diagnosed at the time of an initial installation of the dryer, before the substance is introduced.